Michigan Couple Sentenced To Life In Prison After Sexually Assaulting 1-Year-Old Girl

A Michigan couple will be serving life in prison after authorities found video of them taking turns sexually abusing a 1-year-old girl, Fox 17 reports.

Stevie Foehl, 28, and Michael Emory, 26, pleaded guilty to a plethora of sex crimes in January, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct, possession of child sexually abusive material and use of a computer to commit a crime.

Emory was under investigation in February 2013 for a separate sex crime involving a 14-year old girl from Ottawa County, whom he found on Craigslist for babysitting services, according to The Huffington Post.

But when detectives searched the couple’s Alpine Township apartment, they came across something more disturbing.

They found a computer containing graphic video that even veteran detectives found difficult to watch.

“To a person, this is the worst, one of the worst (child sex cases) they’ve had to work,” John Hess, Kent County Undersheriff, told WZZM.

The video showed the couple filming each other performing unspeakable sexual acts on a 1-year-old girl.

Emory and Foehl had fled from their home but FBI and local authorities tracked them down in Spartanburg, South Carolina in August 2013. The couple was extradited to Michigan to face charges.

Emory’s attorneys tried to convince the judge he was a good candidate for rehabilitation, but the judge adamantly disagreed.

“Criminal sexual conduct in the first degree is one of the more serious crimes,” Judge Dennis Leiber said during the sentencing on March 5. “I don’t know how to quantify the horror this child was put through.”

Leiber sentenced Emory to three consecutive life sentences and sentenced Foehl to life in prison.

Emory was asked by the judge how he found himself in a position to do such a thing to an infant, to which he responded, “It’s a hard situation to explain.” He added that it was the result of a “long line of bad choices,” and apologized to the family of the victim, who were in the courtroom.

“I’d just like to apologize to the family of the victim,” Emory said in court, before hearing his sentence. “Every day I wake up and wish I could take this back, all I can try to do is make the future better, make things better somehow.”

Foehl also apologized.

“To say I’m remorseful is an understatement,” she said. “If I could go back and change my actions I would.”

Last year, in an interview with WOOD-TV, Foehl expressed confusion about the charges brought against her and her boyfriend. She told the station that “nothing we did hurt (the victim) ... physically,” but admitted, “of course it’s not going to make sense to anybody.”